Peach Pie (from Taste of Home)

• I made this recently and it was yummy! The recipe comes from Taste of Home.  You can find it HERE
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 4-1/2 cups sliced peeled peaches
• Pastry for double-crust pie (9 inches)
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon butter

Directions

1. In a large bowl, combine sugars; add peaches and toss gently. Cover and let stand for 1 hour. Line a 9-in. pie plate with bottom pastry; trim even with edge. Set aside. Drain peaches, reserving juice.
2. In a small saucepan, combine the cornstarch, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt; gradually stir in reserved juice. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in lemon juice and butter. Gently fold in peaches. Pour into crust.
3. Roll out remaining pastry; make a lattice crust. Trim, seal and flute edges. Cover edges loosely with foil. Bake at 400° for 50-60 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Remove foil. Cool on a wire rack. Yield: 6-8 servings.

***FOR MY WONDERFUL FAMILY, I make my own pie crust.  It comes from the recipe book - Set for Life - called Never-Fail Pie Crust.  It is easy and I know you have the recipe!

Pie in a Jar

I love making these fun little pies!

From a previous post on my personal blog,  A Lioness at the Gate:  Paul called home last night after a long day at work.  He was looking forward to coming home to having a cup of ice-cream. I thought (to myself) I can do better than a cup of ice cream, so I decided to surprise him with a individual serving of a pie in a jar!  I have been wanting to make these for over a year after I found the cute idea on Our Best Bites (here is their link).

I had all the supplies on hand (1/2 pint wide mouth mason jars, pie filling, and ingredients to make the crust)!

 I have used a pie crust from this Perfect Apple Pie recipe  and now I love this recipe from the Pie Lady.

 Line the jar with pie crust.

 Fill them up with 1/2 cup of pie filling.

 I brushed the tops of each pie with whisked egg yolk and then sprinkled them with sugar. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until golden brown on top.

 They were delicious!  You can even freeze them to bake later.

Easiest Pie Crust

This recipe for the crust comes from our own local "Pie Lady".  She has made tens of thousands of pies over her lifetime, with it all starting out helping her grandma bake pies at Cherry Hill campground in Utah.


1 rounded cup of flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco (you may use any form of solid fat:  butter, margarine, shortening)

Mix all together with fingers until you have fine crumbs.

Add 1/4 cup water


A 2 crust pie is baked on bottom shelf of oven at 375 for 1 hour.  (regular filled pies)

Before baking a 2 crust pie, frozen or fresh, dot top with milk and sprinkle with sugar.


Additional Notes:
Add 20-25 minutes for frozen pie.

To make a pie shell place dough on back of side of tin, poke with fork and bake on bottom shelf of oven at 375 for 10-12 minutes. (You would only pre-bake the crust if you were doing a cream filled pie).

Slab Apple Pie

Pre-Baked Apple Slab Pie

This is a recipe that I got from Jody, one of her favorites.  I have tasted it a few times at her house and it is delicious.  Today is the first time that I have made it myself!

Crust:
1 cup margarine/butter
1 cup shortening
5 cups white flour
2 tsp. salt
2 egg yolks plus enough milk to measure 1 cup

Filling:
8-10 granny smith apples, peeled, thinly sliced
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 T. flour
4 T. tapioca pearls

Directions:  For crust, cut in shortening and margarine into dry ingredients.  (I used 2 cups of butter flavored shortening instead of 1 cup of each.  I also mix these together with my hands, it works just as well.  In fact, it is faster than when I use my pastry cutter).  Then add eggs and milk.  When the dough is mixed, divide the dough in half.  Roll out dough for bottom crust to cover a 17x2 jelly roll pan (aka cinnamon roll pan for me) and then roll out a top crust.

For filling, mix all ingredients together except the tapioca   Sprinkle tapioca over the bottom crust and then cover with apple filling.  Then carefully place the top crust over the apples and crimp down the edges of the pie (I just used my fingers).

Brush top of pie with 2 egg whites mixed with 2 T. of water.  (I like to sprinkle the of the crust with sugar after the egg white mixture).  Do NOT slit top of pie.  Bake at 350 for about one hour or until crust is golden brown.  Drizzle with glazed made with power sugar and water over the warm pie.  Enjoy!
 

Apple Pie Filling

I love having this on hand to make pie year round!


6 qts. fresh apples, peeled, cored, sliced
3 c. sugar
1 1/2 cups Ultra Gel
1 T. cinnamon
1 tsp. of each - nutmeg, cloves, ginger, allspice
2 1/2 cups cold water
5 cups apple juice
3/4 cups lemon juice

Mix sugar, ultra gel, and spices together.  Then add water, apple juice, lemon juice and cook over medium high heat until thick and bubbly.  Fold in apples.  Fill jars, leaving headspace.  Process jars in hot water bath for 35 minutes.  Makes 7 quarts.

Peach Pie Filling

I found this on Pinterest, originally posted here with great pictures through the different steps.

For the pie filling I made 7 quarts at a time using 6 quarts of sliced peaches.
In a large deep stock pot mix:
5 1/4 c. cold water
1 3/4 c. bottled lemon juice
7 c. granulated sugar
2 c plus 3 tbsp Clear Jel
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. almond flavoring - I added this at the very end.

While stirring over medium heat bring the mixture up to a boil. You will feel the mix begin to thicken as you stir. It will thicken quickly and while scorch if you don’t work fast. I use a large whisk and keep everything moving while scraping the bottom and the sides of the pot. Boil for 1 minute and remove from heat. The bottom will scorch if you just leave the pot on the eye turned off.

Add in the peaches and mix well. The cloudy look is normal. Don’t worry. After processing the filling will become crystal clear.   Using hot sterilized jars fill the jars leaving 1 1/4 inch of head space. The filling will expand in during processing and will rupture the lids if you don’t leave enough head space. Apply lids and bands.

Process quart jars in a boiling water bath for 30 minutes.

Tiff's notes:  I added the cinnamon and almond flavoring to this recipe, I got the idea from another recipe.  It is wonderful with it.  The first batch I forgot the almond flavoring, the second batch I remembered and it was even better with it!

Peaches and Cream Pie

I found this recipe on allrecipes.com, here. Paul and I made this together Sunday and it was delicious - there were no left overs.

3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 (3 ounce) package non-instant vanilla pudding mix
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 (29 ounce) can sliced peaches, drained and syrup reserved
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup white sugar

1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease sides and bottom of a 10 inch deep-dish pie pan.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking powder and pudding mix. Mix in butter, egg and milk. Beat for 2 minutes. Pour mixture into pie pan. Arrange the peach slices on top of the pudding mixture.
3. In a small mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add 1/2 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons reserved peach syrup. Beat for 2 minutes. Spoon mixture over peaches to within 1 inch of pan edge. Mix together 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and sprinkle over top.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, until golden brown. Chill before serving.

Tiff's Tips:
I used a 10" spring form pan instead of a pie pan. I also used fresh peaches instead of canned ones because I have lots of peaches right now. You can do it either way and it will be delicious!

Perfect Apple Pie

I think I got this from A Taste of Home magazine many years ago. I have loved it ever since. It is the perfect apple pie!

Crust:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup shortening
4-5 Tbsp. cold water

Combine the flour and salt and then cut in shortening. Add water slowly until dough forms a ball. Chill 30 minutes.

Filling:
7-8 cups peeled, sliced apples
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. nutmeg
2 Tbsp. butter
1 egg yolk
1 Tbsp. water

Toss apple slices and lemon juice together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg and mix. Then add apples. Pour mixture into rolled out pie crust, dot with butter. Roll out top crust, and lay on top of apples; seal and flute edges. Beat egg yolk and water and brush over pastry. (Then I generously sprinkle sugar on top of the pastry crust).
Bake 425 for 15 min. Then reduce heat to 350 and bake 40-45 minutes until golden and bubbly.
(I usually cover the edges of my pie crust for half of the baking time so they don't get too dark).